Membranes Research in Tianjin University: Celebrating 130th Anniversary

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 2 October 2025 | Viewed by 2344

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
Interests: membrane materials and membrane processes; water treatment, fuel cell membrane; membrane gas separation

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Co-Guest Editor
School of Chemical Engin​eering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
Interests: membrane materials; membrane processes; gas separation; desalination and water treatment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tianjin University, funded in 1895 as Peiyang University, is the oldest institution of higher education in the modern history of China. TJU is now home to 123 national-, ministerial- and provincial-level research platforms, including four State Key Laboratories, four National Engineering Laboratories, four National Engineering (Technology) Research Centers, three National International Science and Technology Cooperation Bases, and 16 Key Laboratories and Engineering Research Centers of the Ministry of Education. 

To celebrate the 130th anniversary of TJU, Membranes will publish this Special Issue entitled “Membranes Research in Tianjin University: Celebrating 130th Anniversary”. This Special Issue will collect high-quality full research articles or comprehensive literature reviews in the broad scope of membrane materials and membrane processes.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Hong Wu
Prof. Dr. Zhi Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • advanced membrane materials
  • UF/NF/RO/FO membranes
  • gas separation membranes
  • oil/water separation membranes
  • pervaporative membranes
  • fuel cell membranes
  • MOF/COF membranes
  • mixed matrix membranes

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 4271 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Coagulation-Integrated Sand Filtration and Ultrafiltration for Seawater Reverse Osmosis Pretreatment
by Qingao Li, Lixin Xie, Shichang Xu and Wen Zhang
Membranes 2024, 14(6), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes14060125 - 29 May 2024
Viewed by 1195
Abstract
The removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from seawater before the reverse osmosis (RO) processes is crucial for alleviating organic fouling of RO membranes. However, research is still insufficiently developed in the comparison of the effectiveness of integrating coagulation with ultrafiltration (UF) or [...] Read more.
The removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from seawater before the reverse osmosis (RO) processes is crucial for alleviating organic fouling of RO membranes. However, research is still insufficiently developed in the comparison of the effectiveness of integrating coagulation with ultrafiltration (UF) or sand filtration (SF) in the pretreatment stage of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) for the removal of DOM. In this study, we investigated the effect of pretreatment technologies on RO fouling caused by DOM in seawater, including the integration of coagulation and sand filtration (C-S pretreatment) and the integration of coagulation and ultrafiltration (C-U pretreatment). Both integrated pretreatments achieved comparable DOM removal rates (70.2% for C-U and 69.6% for C-S), and C-S exhibited enhanced removal of UV-absorbing compounds. Although C-U was more proficient in reducing the silt density index (below 2) compared to C-S (above 3) and improved the elimination of humic acid-like organics, it left a higher proportion of tyrosine-protein-like organics, soluble microbial by-product-like organics, and finer organics in the effluent, leading to the formation of a dense cake layer on RO membrane and a higher flux decline. Therefore, suitable technologies should be selected according to specific water conditions to efficiently mitigate RO membrane fouling. Full article
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